Dino Crisis: Ibis Island and the Third Energy
by L. Loire
Summary: This is the novelization of the first Dino Crisis game. Rated T for violence and language. CHAPTER 3 POSTED. Read and review!
1. Prologue

**Dino Crisis: Ibis Island and the Third Energy, by L. Loire. **

**Note**: Keep in mind, I don't own any of the characters contained herein. With that said, keep in mind that this is a novelization of an amazing game, Dino Crisis. Thanks to Capcom for putting this game out. I warn you, dear reader, that if you have not played the game and wish to play it, turn back now, for this will contain spoilers, since, well…ahem…it is a novelization of the game. This is not a strategy guide, walkthrough, or FAQ—some parts of the game have and/or will be cut out or edited for the purposes of this story, to make it more cohesive. You have been warned. Now, without further ado, read and enjoy. Leave a review!

**Prologue: Briefing **

_I have successfully infiltrated under the guise as a researcher as planned. I have encountered no information regarding top secret development of new-type weapons, but I have discovered there is an unexpected individual at this facility. The man is Dr. Kirk, the leading authority of our nation's energy research. Dr. Kirk was alleged to have died in an accident during the course of an experiment 3 years ago. Reports were premature and it appears that he is currently working as the head of a non-weapon project at this facility. The experiment is in the late stages of development. Regarding the staged accidental death, it appears that this country is somehow involved. I am recommending that necessary actions be taken immediately. Mission objectives: secure Dr. Kirk and repatriate him immediately._

_The helicopter whirred above the dark cloud cover, protected by the veil of night. Above ocean on all sides, for miles around, the five military operatives sat on cold metal benches, their faces masked. Hardly a word was passed among the group since the helicopter took off from the base. There was no need—the mission they set out to do was a basic routine mission. The organization, S.O.R.T., Secret Operation Raid Team, a governmental agency, had picked up wind of something called the Third Energy, a new energy source designed by renowned scientist, Dr. Edward Kirk. Work on the Third Energy took place at the facility on Ibis Island, an island out in the Pacific. However, three years ago, during an experiment relating to the Third Energy, Kirk died in an accident, and the project was scrapped. Recently, the Ibis Island facility once again began work, and a suspicion was rising—was Kirk still alive? Something was happening at the facility, and the Feds were curious. Utilizing the assistance of S.O.R.T., one agent, using the name of Tom, was sent into the facility, under the guise of a researcher, to seek out and report the findings and doings of. His findings confirmed that Kirk was in fact, very much alive, and is currently working on a project, the particulars of it unknown and irrelevant to the mission. What is known is that we have to find the Doctor and secure him with us. It's just a routine mission…or so we all thought._

_Our chopper broke through the clouds, into a wide, open patch of clear sky to which the stars and moon were clearly visible. Looking down, the seemingly calm ocean stretched for miles, the waters dark. Up ahead in the distance, one could make out the tiny landmass of the island._

_"Approaching drop zone," the pilot said, and with that, our leader motioned for us to arise, to prepare ourselves for deployment. One of our agents walked to the large cockpit door, and pushed it open, allowing the quick-moving winds into the cabin. The leader peered his head out, looked down, and then he looked back at us and nodded. _

_"Feels like there's a little turbulence," one agent said to the leader. The aircraft was flying in the island's airspace, moving quickly over the heavily wooded island. _

_"Once we hit the ground, head for the designated convergence point," The leader said, looking at his wrist and starting a stopwatch._

"_Got it?" he said, his voice muted. We all nodded in unison and without another second, he jumped out of the chopper, and the rest of us followed suit, each one of us jumping out of the aircraft in timed intervals so not to hit each other. The four of us drifted slowly downward, descending to the dark island below. As we continued, one could clearly see the dark outline of the facility and the surrounding woodland. Something did look slightly amiss, though—the facility looked dark, as in, not in use. Wouldn't someone have noticed four rather large parachutes descending? I shrugged it off, and continued descent. _

_At ground level, we took off the masks, and the leader stopped his watch. The leader, Gail, several feet ahead of us, looked at the surroundings. To our left, ocean stretched on for miles. For now, all that could be heard was the gentle crashing of ocean waves, the dark waters approaching and receding with a slow cadence. The moon, very large in the sky, cast its light over the sandy beach, making the lay of the land very clear; giving us a clear view of the facility. Gail's eyes remain squinted, the moonlight reflecting off his lined features. He was a tall figure, built, and could easily be seen as an intimidating, imposing figure, especially if he glared at you with his dark eyes. His short white hair, styled like a military crew cut, made him look almost bald in the moonlight. A man in his late middle age, his facial features clearly reflected a life in the service. Just ahead, closer to me, Rick was brushing himself off after landing. He was dark-skinned, and very well built, the moonlight reflecting off his toned muscles. His straight black hair was pulled back in a ponytail, which he brushed off to one side. Gail looked up briefly at the mostly clear sky, then turned his head to face us. _

"_It's time," he ordered, already starting to walk to the first checkpoint. "Let's move out."_

_Rick looked at me and I quickly looked behind. Cooper was missing, and Gail was already taking off. _

"_What about Cooper?" I called out, attempting to get Gail's attention. No avail; he just kept walking. I sighed, thinking that what Gail was doing was wrong…but the mission was the top priority. I started to run ahead. _

"_Hey, Regina! Wait!" Rick called out._

_Where the fuck am I? Totally lost, in unknown woods, in pitch blackness. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Leave it to me to get separated from the group. Hell, I don't know where the convergence point is. _

The beam of light emitted by his flashlight only gave back what he already knew—he was surrounded in dark, thick jungle, with no way out. Seeing nothing else as a viable option, he began walking straight ahead, his flashlight unwavering. As he bushwhacked his way through the dense undergrowth, something unexpected happened--fear started to make its way inside his beating chest, for some inexplicable reason, and he began to quicken his pace, his cadence quick, until he broke out in a flat-out run. Running wherever, he didn't know, but all his mind knew was that he had to get out of the jungle, fast. He stopped for a quick second, and tapped the radio device on his wrist, only to get white noise, static.

"Regina! Gail! Rick! This is Cooper!" Cooper yelled, taking breaths between each name. "Anyone! This is Cooper! Can you read?"

Then he felt the ground shake, the sound of a dull thud echoing in the night.

_What the hell?_

Another dull thud shook the earth. Something—something rather large was heading in his direction, and Cooper's mind screamed one thing--

_Fly, you fool!_

Without hesitation, the panicked agent broke out into almost a full sprint, not caring about the brush flying in his face, not caring about vines, leaves, and undergrowth trying to hinder him. The sound that was the pounding of his heart seemed amplified a thousand times, thundering in the scared Cooper's body. Or was it his heart? Or was it the repeating dull thuds, picking up speed?

_What is that?_

Behind him, he could hear the sounds of trees snapping like twigs, falling to the floor, as the sounds of—footsteps—grew increasingly louder…

…_closer. It's getting closer…!_

Trees were falling much closer behind him now, the adrenaline flying through Cooper's veins, the drive to escape all on his mind. Whatever it was, judging by the intervals between steps, it was running, too…running at a much faster clip than him.

_I'm not gonna outrun it!_

The creature let out a roar, a sound unlike anything Cooper had heard in his life.

_No creature in existence makes that roar…_

Still running as fast as his muscular legs could carry him, he took one quick glance—and saw the outline of the creature, and the moonlight filtering through the dense canopy reflected off the massive head of—

_A T-Rex! IMPOSSIBLE!_

It was only several hundred feet behind him, and it'd be on him in seconds. He continued running, giving brief glances back. There was no mistaking it—he was being chased by a creature dead at least sixty-five million years.

_No! It can't be! _

Another roar pierced the night, the sheer force of it almost knocking Cooper to the ground. He stumbled, but caught himself and kept running, holding onto some pipe dream that he was going to make it out of this one alive. The ground shook beneath him, and he felt as if the ground would open and swallow him. The steps came fast; he could swear that the monster was just mere feet behind him. He looked behind him once more—

--only to feel the massive jaws pierce clean through his torso, his sight going red before losing all consciousness altogether. The T-Rex snapped its jaws once again, gnashing on the misfortunate Cooper. Again. His head quickly moved from side to side, much like a dog flailing a rope, as if trying to rip Cooper's lower half off. With another side sweep motion, the creature released its hold on the now dead Cooper, his body flying before his mutilated corpse hit the soft earth. With the moon in full view, the creature let out another ear-splitting roar, a roar of triumph.

END chapter. So it begins. How is it thus far? Leave me a review! I'm working on **Chapter One**, where Regina and company do their initial explorations of the Ibis Island facility…and things are not what they seem. Chapter One will be up shortly, with any luck.


	2. Initial Venturing

**Author's Note: **Nothing has really changed, plot-wise. I'm just re-uploading this chapter because I made a few changes to a few lines. Most of the spoken dialogue is taken straight from the Dino Crisis script, with some tweaking of my own. Also, documents and memos contained come from the game. Documents are in boldface type, computer monitor wording is written in bold and italics. So, on we go!

**Chapter One: Initial Venturing**

In the quiet of the night, the remaining three—Regina, Rick, and Gail—stood in a small, fenced-in enclosure in the backyard of the facility. The sky itself seemed to be cloudier, gray clouds moving quickly over the moon. Other than that, the only other sources of light came from night lights throughout the backyard. Regina and Rick stood in a corner; Gail looked once more at the surroundings. Behind him, straight ahead of Regina, was a gate leading to a door, most likely one of the side entrances of the facility. Closer to them stood the guardhouse. Behind the two, another gate led to other parts of the facility. Once sure of himself, Gail looked at the two, a stern look across his face.

"Ok. This is the first checkpoint. Playtime's officially over, kiddies." He looked behind him again, his gaze fixated on the guardhouse. "Something's wrong," he added, "the lights in the guardhouse are out."

Rick was quick to chime in. "Umm…maybe this has been a wild night of partying for the guards—you know, a little song, a little dance…"

Apparently that line of logic didn't sit with Gail, and he crept toward the door, his gun ready. His motions slow and deliberate; he raised his gun with one hand and began to open the gate. Rick began to follow, and Gail stopped his action, and turned his seemingly cold stare to Rick.

"Stay here, Junior," Gail ordered, his voice stern. "Leave the rest to me." With that, he went through the gate. Regina walked to Rick, who seemed slightly miffed.

"Did you hear what he just called me?"

Regina sighed. "Forget it. Just let Gail handle this." No sooner did she say that when both their wrist intercoms beeped, a green light flashing from Gail telling them the area was clear. Both of them walked through the gate, and once through, they stopped.

"Okay. Let's do this," Rick began, Regina crossing her shoulders. "I'll infiltrate the facility and occupy the Control Room on the first floor. I should have access to all the security systems from there. I'll contact you as soon as I've cleared the room."

Regina nodded in agreement, and Rick left it at that, running quickly to the entrance, then disappearing into the building, leaving Regina alone. Her path veered to the left, and no sooner did she turn round the guardhouse, did she see Gail squatting, his gaze scrutinizing the ground, his brow furrowed. Piquing her interest, she ran over to him, and noticed a dark stain on the ground, probably blood. Gail held a bullet in his fingers.

"Let me guess. This is some of your handiwork, right?" she asked casually, unfazed by Gail's demeanor.

"Hmm…" Gail replied, thinking. "The brass is still warm. These guards were shooting at something _very_ recently."

"So who were they fighting?"

"This wasn't much of a fight. I don't think these guards hit anything before getting sliced and diced. Whatever they were shooting at came in right through there." Gail gestured with his hand to the large, gaping hole in the metal fence ahead. "Ripped right through the steel fence."

Regina walked over to the large rip and closely examined it. "Well, the hole _is _nice and clean, but I still say you could have done this."

"Very funny. We still need to figure out what happened here. Continue to sweep the area." Looking ahead, she could see another gate leading to another fenced area. A quick glance in that direction, and she made out a lock on the gate. Going into the facility would do nothing, Rick could take care of that, and so she was left with exploring the rest of the backyard. She backtracked, walking back through the gate she came in, and when she did, her intercom beeped.

"Regina here."

Rick's voice came over the intercom. "Rick here. I'm in. The place is deserted, though. I have a bad feeling about this…"

"How's the progress going with that security system?" Regina asked.

"That's the thing," Rick replied. "I don't know what's going on here, but it looks like all the power in this facility has been cut."

"Same here," she agreed.

"As long as that's the situation, there's not much I can do. Why don't you see if you can gain access to the backup generators on the ground level? They should be right near your position."

Gail walked through the gate behind her.

"I'm on it," Regina ended. She turned around to face Gail. "What are you doing here?"

"I caught the last part of your conversation," Gail said. "Let's go outside." Gail proceeded cautiously to his right, going through the gate. Regina followed close behind. The passageway to the backup generator was fenced, and took a turn to the right. Gail stopped and looked ahead, and saw a bloodied corpse ripped in two on the ground, lying in a puddle of blood.

"That's disgusting," Regina said casually.

Gail squatted down to further examine the corpse. From the look of the body, he was a guard. "This guy's been eviscerated. Something tore his intestines straight out. The blood hasn't even started to clot yet."

"Look at those tooth marks," Regina pointed out. "It had to be some sort of…animal."

Gail rose to his feet. "Come on. Let's move on." Looking ahead, the two could easily see the door to the Backup Generator room.

"That must be the generator room," Gail said. "I'll stand guard here. You go inside and take a look around." Without a comment, Regina went inside. The room was simple enough—a rather large room, with a huge generator sitting in the middle. The walkway veered to the left, and Regina noted a glass case with four objects—batteries—inside. To the left of the case was a control panel of sorts: four levers with a corresponding color. Looking once again at the case, she noted that the four batteries were color-coded, and below the glass, four buttons. The levers, in order from left to right: red, blue, green, white. The batteries were out of order: red, white, green, blue. She pressed the button to the far right, and noticed that the position of the green and blue batteries reversed. With that knowledge, she pressed the buttons in sequence until the four batteries matched the four levers. Reaching to her right, she pulled the levers in order, making the batteries lock into their respective sockets. On the generator control panel, four lights lit up, and the generator hummed to life. Almost within a second of the generator's activation, her intercom beeped.

"Thank you, Regina," Rick said. "We are back online. I'm gonna see about getting through the security system."

"Anytime. I'm on my way to the Control Room now." Her work done, she made her way for the door, when suddenly the sound of gunshots filled the air, machine gun fire coming from just outside the door. A brief pause, and she heard a muffled hiss, followed by more gunshots. A scream cut through the fray, piercing Regina's ears.

"_Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!_"

This was followed by the sounds of metal and another hiss, followed by the cease of the gunfire.

_Gail!_

Flinging the door open, Regina ran out back onto the passageway, grabbing her handgun. Just ahead, she saw a puddle of blood on the stone ground, and the next thing she noticed—whoever he was, he was dragged, the blood smeared along the ground for another thirty or forty feet up the walkway. With her gun raised, she walked cautiously, following the trail of smeared blood to where it finally ended. Lying on the ground was the torso of a guard, his face twisted and contorted. The fence next to the mutilated guard had another tear, very similar to the one Gail spotted earlier.

_Could he…?_

Regina squatted, peering through the large hole.

"Gail!" She called out. She was looking face down off a cliff, seeing nothing but ocean below.

"Gail!"

Another hiss cut through the eerie stillness. Regina picked up on it, and stood up slowly, her gun still drawn. A few seconds later, another hiss could be heard. Quickly, she pointed her gun in the direction of the strange sound. Suddenly she heard something sounding like footsteps, moving very quickly, running across the top of metal crates straight ahead. With one large leap, the figure leaped, and landed just feet from Regina.

_What the hell! A…dinosaur!_

Wasting no time, the creature lunged at her. Regina dove out of the way, the creature's head missing her by inches. She fired two rounds into the creature's reptilian skin, blood coming out of the inflicted wounds. Reorienting herself, Regina made a beeline for the gate to the backyard, with the dinosaur giving chase. Its powerful legs far exceeded Regina's, and would be on her in seconds. Regina fired three more rounds, hitting the creature, but failing to reduce its speed. Its mouth opened, revealing two rows of sharp teeth, and then leaped into the air, claws outstretched. Regina dove again, and she fired another couple rounds into the creature's underside, sending it to the ground. The reptilian creature let out a feral roar, a sound of which Regina never heard the likes of. Without a second to waste, she climbed to her feet and scrambled for the gate as the creature leaped upright.

_Shit—shit—shit—_

She threw the catch open and slammed the gate shut, then drew her gun and fired three more rounds through the fence, all of them finding their mark in the creature's massive head, skin and blood flying off the monster as she fired from point-blank range. Finally, the dinosaur let out another piercing screech, then collapsed to the ground, twitching slightly as blood slowly trickled from its wounds.

She collapsed against the fence, her back pressed against it, her chest heaving, breathing heavily from the most unusual encounter.

_What the hell was that thing? A dinosaur? But how? How could a creature like that be…be alive? Aren't they supposed to be extinct? How could they be running around on this island? What kind of freak show is this facility doing? Maybe Rick's uncovered something…_

Regaining her composure, she walked quickly through the gate leading to the rear entrance, whereupon her wrist intercom beeped.

"Good news!" an excited Rick said, "I got the control system back online. What's the situation over there?"

"It's Gail!" Regina replied, her breathing still heavy. "I lost him."

Rick laughed. "So what's the bad news? Did you run into some guards?"

"You're not going to believe this," Regina began. "He was attacked by some sort of dinosaur!"

A few seconds of silence passed between the two before Rick let out a hearty laugh of disbelief. "Now _that's_ a good one! So, who was it? Barney? For real, what's going on over there?"

Regina's mood changed to one of annoyance. "This isn't a joke, you idiot! We were just attacked by a big-ass lizard!"

Rick chuckled. "Alright. Head on over to the Control Room and we'll sort out this whole situation. Rick out."

Regina sighed, and jogged quickly to the door, gun loaded and ready. She cracked open the door slightly, slowly moving herself through the threshold into an empty hallway. It was a dimly lit hallway, the walls metallic gray. The hall turned at a right angle to the left a ways down, and the entire right wall of the hallway was lined with large glass windows, big enough for anyone or anything to crash through. Regina walked briskly down the hallway, quickly darting to the left only to find her path blocked by a laser security gate. Just ahead, several large laser beams cut across the hallway, preventing anything from getting through. To her immediate left stood a door, and a few feet in front of her, a metal grate lay on the floor. Reaching for the knob, it turned, but the door didn't give.

_Damn. Probably locked from the inside._

Looking up in the ceiling, she noted an opening wide enough for someone. Hanging from the ceiling was a long cord, a grapple attachment at the end.

_Rick was here._

Regina attached the grapple to a belt loop, and pulled on the cord slightly, triggering the pulling mechanism. Once inside the piping check passageway, she walked ahead with ease, looking for where the walkway would end. The path veered to the right slightly, and she saw Rick's handiwork just a few feet ahead. At the opening, she slowed her pace, drew her gun and aimed it downward. Other than the dull hum of machinery reverberating through the pipes, she heard no sound, no dull thuds or sounds of anything amiss. With slow and deliberate movement, she dropped to the floor and quickly looked around. Not hearing anything out of the ordinary, she walked down the dimly lit hall to where it curved to the right. Almost immediately, she spotted the door labeled: "Control Room 1F." With a mechanical hiss, the door opened upward to reveal a small room, brightly lit by the screens and monitors that lined the walls. Straight ahead was another door, and in the center of this industrial gray room, Rick sat in the center, his fingers working quickly over a keyboard, one of many in this room.

"What's our status?" Regina asked, the door closing behind her.

Rick chuckled. "This security system is a snap for me. Real amateur stuff." He turned in his swivel chair, facing Regina. His face drew a look of curiosity. "So, what exactly happened to Gail? You said that he was attacked by a dinosaur?"

Her eyes grew wide. "Yeah. I couldn't believe it…I just hope he's still alive. Anyway, our first priority is to complete the mission."

Rick scoffed. "What we _oughta _do is just call in the chopper and get off this deathtrap."

"That's a great idea, but Cooper has the radio—and he's missing," she pointed out.

Out of the corner of her eye, Regina spotted one monitor not working, and her curiosity was aroused. "What's with this monitor?" she asked, walking toward it.

"That's the security monitor for the underground area. The camera's offline," he replied.

"I take it then power still hasn't been restored to the area?"

Rick turned around, facing her once again. "Exactly. They must have that area wired to a different power system than the ground level."

"We can investigate that area after we finished our sweep of the ground level."

"Okay, then I'll take care of the shutters that are blocking the way. You work your way in, grab the Doc, then rendezvous back here," Rick said, turning once more to the keyboard.

"All right," Regina said, walking to the door. Once more, the door opened and as she walked back into the hall, she said, "Keep me informed." Rick nodded, and Regina took a left, seeing as to what else was down the Control Room hallway. The end of the hall grew dark, probably a couple of bulbs burned out.

_I'm starting to wonder where those things are coming from…_

She noticed a stairwell leading down, probably into the underground. Deciding not to investigate that area just yet, she turned around and headed back the way she came. Walking quickly past the Control Room, the hall veered left, and she decided she'd investigate what was behind the door ahead, just past the Piping Check grate on the floor. Raising her gun, she turned the knob slowly and quickly entered the room.

The door revealed a small room, brightly lit, gray on all sides of her. To her immediate right, the floor was lined with cabinets, shelves, with books resting on top. To her left, bookshelves lined the wall; all filled with binders and books of sorts. Straight ahead was another door, possibly leading further into the first floor. Next to the door was a computer terminal. Looking down, a dark red, crimson smear stained the gray tiled floor, giving the apparent notion that a body or something was dragged. The smear trailed to the back of the small office before banking right to a small side room. One whiff of the surrounding air confirmed her thought—something reeked of death. Something small and shiny gleamed out of the corner of her eye, resting on top a small pile of disorganized books. Walking quickly, she noted it was a small disk, probably the size of a standard floppy, and to it a label was attached: "DDK Input 'H'." Pocketing it, for it could've been of importance. Where the blood trail would lead, she'd find out in a second, but first she took one glance at the computer, and saw some words. She read briefly on the monitor:

**_New Employee Education (Email)_**

**Please inform the new employees assigned to this department about the "DDK" system as follows:**

**The Digital Disc Key or DDK, is a system that secures our most important areas with an advanced locking device. To release the locks protected by the DDK, prepare and set the following two data discs at the locking device near the door:**

**"DDK CODE DISC X"**

**"DDK INPUT DISC X"**

**The type of the DDK you need is identified on the door: "A", "B", etc. If the DDK type you use does not match, you cannot release the lock. Before operating the system, make sure that your DDK type matches the door you wish to unlock.**

_That's certainly a help. _

Following the trail to the small side room, she saw the source—a dead body was dead on the floor, his torso ripped to shreds. He'd been there a while, judging by the coagulated blood. Judging by his uniform, he was probably a researcher of some kind, but no matter. His body gave off an odor rife with fetor, and around his body was a shotgun. Whatever went on in here, he probably went down with guns blazing. Holstering her handgun, she carefully removed the shotgun off his limp body.

_Good solid weapon…can hold five shells at once, it looks like. A couple of shells left…I'll need more._

Positioning the strap around her shoulder, the shotgun at her back, and checked his pockets for any ammo, but came up empty.

Having finished her sweep of the Management Office, she rose to her feet, and walked quickly to the exit. Grabbing her handgun, she opened the door, only to find herself in another hallway. A loud hiss, sounding horribly close, alerted her to its presence. Turning quickly to her right, she saw another dinosaur, similar to the one she encountered outside. It was trapped, the laser fence blocking it from advancing toward Regina. The raptor let out a roar, then ran headlong for the vulnerable S.O.R.T. operative—and let out a hiss of pain as it slammed into the lasers, sending the creature reeling back, hitting the floor with a loud _thud._

She couldn't help but burst out in a snicker, a sly smile spreading across her face.

"Idiot," she said softly. Her wrist intercom beeped.

"Regina? I took care of the shutter system. You should be able to access their control panels now," Rick said.

She looked at the control panel next to the shutter, and saw the red light switch to green, it now being operative.

"Already? That was quick," Regina replied, a bit surprised.

"Hey, girl…just get going."

Regina chuckled, and just looked at the raptor. Once more, it let out a hiss, and then sprinted to her again, only to hear the _zap_ and get sent back again. Knowing that she'd have to head that way, she stood still and fired off several rounds into the creature's thick head, one getting its eye, spewing blood and sclera everywhere. She ejected the spent clip out of the handgun, slammed a new one in, and fired another round or two before the creature breathed its last.

_Dirty pool, I know…but you're blocking my way. Plus you have the power to kill me. I'm entitled to a little dirty pool now and then._

Turning around, she walked down the hall, and hung a left to a dead end. Three doors stood ahead of her, two on the right, one straight. The one closest was marked "Locker Room." Next to it was a symbol denoting that it was a bathroom. The one ahead was a shiny metallic gray, a symbol emblazoned onto it, probably the facility's logo or something. The lock was electronic, accessible via keycard, judging by the apparatus. Starting at the closest one, she went into the Locker Room. As was expected, it was a men's locker room, judging by the pin-ups of almost-naked women wearing what amounted to twine to cover their nipples and lower genitalia.

_Or, possibly a women's locker room, you never know…_

A couple of chairs and a table stood at the center of the room, lockers lining the walls. A single piece of paper was partially hanging off, and a couple of doors stood open. Walking around the perimeter, she saw nothing of interest except the paper. Curious, she read:

**Before tonight's experiment, the chief and Dr. Kirk will be having a meeting at the 2nd floor lounge at 1:00 p.m. Those who are scheduled to guard should keep a preponderant eye on the area in front of the Chief's Room, and the surrounding vicinity. Before taking positions, be sure to re-supply your ammunition in the custody room. The weapon storage in the custody room can be opened with the combination, "0426". Also, we have received information that spies have sneaked into the facility recently. If anything happens, you may have to enter the rooms of the chief and the professor in order to ensure their safety. You will find the disk that contains the information you will need to access their rooms on top of the locker. That's all for now.**

_Hmm…_

She stood up on a chair, and sure enough, there indeed was a disk on top the set of lockers facing her. She folded up the paper, pocketed it, walked to the lockers, and reached up to grab the disk. She examined the disk closely, and saw the label: "DDK Code 'H'."

_Well, well, well. Now I've got both the H disks…now, where do they go?_

Back out in the hall she went, quickly making her way to the next room over, the restroom. As expected, it was empty. On the floor was another grate, the entrance to another pipe check open in the ceiling.

_Not yet…_

She checked all the stalls for Kirk, came up empty. With nothing else of import, she exited to the hall, fished out the yellow key she found from the dead researcher, and inserted it in the reader. The reader let out an error _buzz, _the red light flashing.

_Nope._

An about face, and she walked quickly back through the hall, seeing the dinosaur she gunned down a few minutes ago, its red blood pooling on the floor. Snickering softly to herself, she reached up, pressed a button on the control panel, and deactivated the shutter. Her foot tapped the creature softly. No response. No recoil or sudden movement from the raptor. Leaping over the downed reptile, she opened up the double doors, and walked into a huge, expansive room—the main entrance of the facility. It was a wide open space, with a door to the right, one straight ahead, and the huge set of double doors to her left. Also ahead, a staircase leading up to the second floor, where one could look over and see down. The logo of the facility—a shield, black background; inside, a red circle with a red outline of something resembling a three-pronged boomerang—was prominently displayed on the floor. Going up the sides of the shield were two long, thin leaves.

_Ok…where to next? Don't wanna go upstairs just yet. Let's see…main entrance…nah-uh. That goes outside…don't wanna risk it, in case something's out there that I can't handle. However, I might find something I need. That door to the right…maybe. The door straight ahead…maybe. I'll go to the closest first, see where that takes me._

Running across the shiny, tiled floor of the main entrance, her footsteps echoed throughout the large area. She ran behind the staircase, to the first door on her right. Upon close inspection, she saw some sort of reader next to the door, a disk reader with two slots and a screen next to them.

_This must be that DDK that was mentioned…_

Looking closely, Regina saw the letter N above the top slot.

_Well, that won't work now, will it?_

She moved counterclockwise to the next door, and found herself on familiar ground—the door led back to the first hallway she came through. She recognized the laser shutter blocking her path the first time. Walking over to the control panel, she deactivated it, and walked back to the main entrance.

_Might as well head outside…_

Holstering her gun, she grabbed the shotgun, cocked it while walking, and pressed a button beside the large double doors. She stepped out into the cool, moonlit night, a sea breeze moving across her face. It was a large walkway area, fenced in by tall shrubbery. Down a ways to her right was a security booth of sorts, a large metal fence beside it, closed shut. Visually sweeping the area, she saw no sign of any of those raptors, but still kept alert, taking stealth-like steps down the stone path. There was some damage done here, some of the shrubs uprooted and lying haphazardly in the path, some of the stone broken, rubble in places. As she made her way down toward the guardhouse, she heard a strange sound—not the sound of crashing waves below, but another creature, sounding far away, airborne. It let out a high pitched call, almost like a hawk. Glancing up, Regina spotted nothing. She quickened the pace a little, and saw what was fast becoming a familiar sight—a guard lie on the cold stone, gouged, destroyed, ripped in two, his blood already dried. Moving to get a better look, she also noted a raptor a couple feet away from him, lying dead as well, two large holes in his abdomen, probably from point-blank shotgun blasts. Her rational mind was slipping further and further into confusion, the obvious and apparent becoming blurred. What the heck were dinosaurs doing existing here? What kind of freak show is Kirk running?

_This mission is getting stranger and stranger by the second…_

The guard's face seemed to have been ripped off; a massive rip tore down his face, mutilating it. There was no expression—just massive, gaping tears. It didn't look like he was carrying anything on him, but more ammo could be found in his pockets. Moving a bit down to his legs, Regina checked the pockets of the guard—and pulled out a disk, one of those DDK things again. The label was marked as DDK Input "N."

_Aha! A clue, Sherlock!_

Pocketing the disk, she got up, her search for additional ammo coming up empty, and ran back into the relative "safety" of the facility. Now, with her sweep of this part of the first floor completed, she decided to head upstairs to the second floor. At the top, a door stood straight ahead. With her shotgun at the ready, she took slow, deliberate steps toward the door. She opened the door, and suddenly she heard the familiar screech of a raptor.

"Ooof!" Regina moaned, something slamming into her with amazing force.

In a second, the raptor landed on top of her, the creature's body a quick blur to her eyes. Regina fell as the reptile's weight landed on her, her back hitting the floor hard, nearly falling on her shotgun, the dinosaur's clawed foot inches from her face. It let out a piercing cry, and raised its head in triumph.

"Now you die," Regina said through gritted teeth. She grabbed her shotgun, placed the muzzle on the creature's belly, and fired the weapon. A deafening blast sounded throughout the second floor as one shell slammed into the creature, ripping a massive hole in its stomach. Guts, blood and skin flew everywhere, over the floors, onto the walls. Chunks of bloody, hot skin hit Regina, and she shielded her eyes. The blast propelled the creature several feet into the air, away. There was no coming back, the creature dead instantly, a puddle of blood quickly pooling at its carcass several feet away. With the sound of the gunshot still ringing in her ears, she rose to her feet once again, wiping dino parts off her gray uniform. Taking another second to get herself straightened, she ran a hand through her short, straight red hair and walked quickly down the hall. The hall opened into a wide space, and she realized that she walked into a lounge of sorts, couches ripped apart to her right, pieces of slashed blinds, foam padding, and broken glass from the shattered windows lying all over the floor. A hundred feet or so away was another door leading off somewhere, one to her left, and one in the lounge area. Next to that one was another of those disk readers. That room had to be of importance—the door itself appeared wooden, a sharp contrast to the rest of the facility with its cold, industrial metallic gray. Walking to that door, she found out why it was so important—it was marked "Chief's Room." Glancing over at the disk reader, she noticed the letter H above the top slot.

_Well, well! Let's see what this whole thing's about!_

Reaching into a pocket, she pulled out the two DDK "H" disks.

_Which one goes in which one? Trial and error, I suppose._

She took the "Code" disk, placing it into the top slot. The reader beeped, and a message appeared on the screen next to it: "Input _DDK Input H_ in bottom slot."

"Simple enough," Regina said to herself while placing the next disk in the slot.

_**Reading…33...67...100. DDK Disk…verified.**_

_**Code: H B C E F A G D I**_

_**DDK: B C F G I**_

_**Password:**_

She drew a look of confusion.

_Of course. Never as simple as it seems. Now what is this…hmm…the password has something to do with the Code and Key letters…now, there are matching letters here…B, C, F, G, I…if I remove those, I get H, E, A, D. I get "Head." That's it!_

"Oh, you think you're so smart, don't you?" Regina said, a huge grin spreading across her face as she punched in the word "head" on the keypad.

_**Password: HEAD**_

_**Checking……………………………………matched!**_

_**The door has been unlocked.**_

Her handgun drawn, she entered the Chief's Room—and saw a human, sitting propped up at the front of a desk. From her observation, he was a scientist, his front and his face stained with blood. His blood-stained hand clutched his side, but to no avail as a slight pool of it formed on the carpet. He was breathing heavily, but erratically, as if he'd probably die at any time from blood loss. To say he was badly injured was an understatement—more like fatally wounded.

_A survivor! _

Regina quickly ran to the researcher's aid, kneeling down by him. With seemingly great effort, he lifted his head, his facial expression registering pain as he did so.

"Are you from the rescue team?" he asked gravely, his voice hoarse.

"Uh…I…um…" She stammered. "Yes…yes, I am. Do you know where I can find Dr. Kirk?"

His bloodshot eyes grew wide. "Kirk!" he tried to exclaim. "That fool…what's he plotting now?"

Regina drew a look of curiosity. "What are you talking about?"

He lifted his arm. "Here. Take this." Regina took the object from his hand.

"What's this for?" she asked. He gave her another one of those DDK disks.

The scientist began to slump over, moaning in pain. "Told…me…"

"What?" Regina asked, reaching out for him.

"Extremely…vital…" he whispered, before falling to his side, his eyes closing, his breathing ceased.

She sighed, disappointed at the loss of the scientist. Whoever he was, he didn't like Kirk.

_Ahh, thank you. _

Looking at the familiar-looking disk in her hand, this was the second for the "N" lock, the Code disk.

Getting up, she looked around the room. It looked like someone of high rank would indeed be here, the wall behind his desk lined with plaques, the shotgun catching her eye. To her right, the wall consisted entirely of glass, offering a view of the facility, the cloudy night sky, the moonlight trying to peek through the cloud cover.

A dull _thud_, soft, was picked up by her ears.

Pocketing the disk, she walked over to the varnished wooden desk, the usual accoutrements neatly placed on the desktop. She opened the drawers, maybe hoping to get lucky—

_Found ya!_

In the bottom drawer, the Chief kept a small box of shotgun shells. To her surprise, it was full. She took some to reload the shotgun with, then took some to put in a pocket.

Another _thud, _sounding closer

_Footsteps?_

Her sweep done, she began to walk for the door—

_CRASH!_

Suddenly, the massively, seemingly disproportionate head broke through the window, sending Regina to the floor. It let out a deafening roar, then rammed its head into the desk where Regina was, easily splintering it. Its huge, yellow, reptilian, Sauron-like eye moved, searching the room. It lunged forward, its jaws agape, and grabbed the dead scientist, easily swallowing him in one gulp.

_What the FUCK! No—this can't be--! You have GOT to be kidding me!_

Before any other rational thought flew into her head, she screamed, and fired her shotgun, one solid round at point-blank range into the monster's thick skin, sending pieces of it flying. It let out another roar, and lunged at her. She dove for the floor, missing the creature by a foot. Suddenly, her mind realized one clear thing, one thing that she wanted to not believe, couldn't believe, but here it was, trying to kill her--

_It's a fucking T-Rex!_

END chapter. Finally, after nearly two years, I've written the next chapter. My apologies to those who have been waiting so long…as always, reviews welcome.


	3. Reunited, For Now

**Author's Note: **Oh, dear god. It's been nearly 2 years since this story saw an update. For those of who you have reviewed my Dino Crisis 2 novelization as well as sent me requests to update THIS novelization, I'm so sorry that it took this long for another chapter. Life happened, unfortunately, and I discovered that I didn't have any time to write. Now, with some stability in my life at last, the writing bug has bit again. I really hope that it doesn't take 2 more years for the next chapter to go up. Once again, huge apologies. Again, documents taken from the game are in bold type, computer messages in bold and italics.

**Chapter Two: Reunited, For Now**

**  
**With her rational brain screaming at her to get out, the sudden shock and complete wrongness of the situation hadn't set in yet, but one thing was abundantly clear—she had to get out. _NOW. _The creature roared again, shaking the room solely on sound waves, and she took a brief moment to fire her weapon while its mouth was wide open, trying to keep her footing while she did so. All it did was make the creature flinch for only a brief instant—in the time it took the gun to reload, the gigantic reptile was ready to lunge again. Quickly, she bolted for the door just a few feet away from her, but the T-Rex was quicker.

_Run-_

_Run-_

_Run-_

As it pitched forward again, it had to turn its massive head to one side, allowing its whole mass into the small room at once. It had Regina its range, preparing to clamp down and take her—

--and she fired one more slug at point-blank right down the lizard's throat, causing it to flinch in apparent pain, but not before part of its jaw hit her in the back, knocking her into the wall, almost into a corner bookcase. Her thin frame crumpled to the floor like a rag doll, the wind knocked out of her as she fell with an audible _oof. _The impact caused her to feel a wave of dizziness pass through her, and as she struggled to get up, her vision was blurred, the room tilted, and she crumpled back down to the floor, certain she was done for.

_Too dizzy…Rick…Gail…done in…if you're gonna kill me, do it now—you have me at your mercy…_

She tried to reach her wristcom to her mouth in an attempt to get a hold of anyone, but as she tried to summon up the energy to do just that, she could see the outline of the dinosaur's head receding, moving back further and further until it was out of the room. Her strength beginning to return, she slowly stood up. As she did, the mammoth creature turned and began walking away from the destroyed room. The ground vibrated slightly as each massive footstep receded, the dull thuds becoming less and less until she was sure that the monster had left her alone…for now.

Her head pounding and her ears ringing, she leaned against the wall for support while the room slowly stopped tilting on her. With her other hand, she brought it to her forehead and rubbed it lightly, checking for any bleeding. Luckily, she had escaped narrowly.

_Guess that last shot paid off…what else could have deterred it from killing me right on the spot?_

Looking around the totally destroyed room, all that was left of it now was a shattered, splintered desk, broken glass everywhere, a small bloodstain on the floor where the scientist was, and her shotgun, lost when the creature hip-checked her. With the danger passed for the moment, she decided to take a few minutes to recover, let her pounding heart return to some semblance of normal, let her thoughts collect.

_What the hell happened at this facility? What kind of experiments happened here—was it an accident? And that researcher—didn't seem to like Kirk…what's his role in all of this? Whatever the case, this mission is going wrong with each second…dinosaurs? A T-Rex! I hope we find this ass quickly…I want answers, Kirk._

Feeling more normal, she walked toward the lying firearm, and felt a small twinge of pain as she bent over to retrieve it.

_Ow…yeah, that's a bruise. That left a mark…_

With nothing else to do in the room, and now with both of the "N" DDK discs in her possession, she decided that she'd continue her sweep of the first floor, see where that particular door led. She raised her wristcom to brief Rick on the situation, but no light came on. She shook her wrist a couple of times, and that seemed to do it—the red transmitting light flashed on, and she spoke into the mike.

"Rick, this is Regina. Do you read?"

"Yeah," he replied a few seconds later. "You ok? I saw a _huge_ T-Rex on one of the monitors here from an exterior camera on the rear of the facility."

"A little shaken," she answered. "I just met him up, close, and personal. I'm on the second floor right now, in what was some high official's office a few minutes ago. There was a barely conscious scientist in here, spoke to me briefly, gave me a disc before he died from lack of blood, it seemed like."

"Say anything important?"

"I'm afraid not. However, he had a very noticeable dislike of our Doctor here. Apparently Kirk was up to something here, or he just didn't like Kirk. Right after, I swept the room and met the T-Rex. Let's just say we both don't agree on certain things."

"Glad you're ok, though," he said cheerfully. "In the meantime, I've fixed some more of the laser shutters that are on the first floor. Also, I just caught a glimpse of something on one of the monitors that looked human. It was a quick glimpse—it could be anyone—Gail, the Doc, or another scientist. It came from a camera just outside a lecture room, it looks like. According to what info I have here, it's at the end of a hall near an elevator lobby, but the double doors in the rear of the main entrance are locked. You didn't happen to find anything that could unlock that?"

She grinned, somewhat deviously. "Aww, you can't crack the code?"

"Tried, but it would seem that some of the more important passages use something that's code-based, kind of like solving a word puzzle. You need a disc or something, and solve the puzzle."

"Well, I've got a couple of discs here, courtesy of that scientist. Maybe one of them will work."

"Try it. I'll see if I can find a way around the system in the meantime. If not, come back here."

"No problem. Regina out."

_Mr. Hack can't figure this one out…I'm amused._

Brushing her short, straight red hair out of her face, she left the room and made her way toward the main entrance once more.

**_Reading…33...66...100. DDK Disc verified._**

**_Code: A B N D E F G H_**

**_ A B W C D F G H_**

**_ A B D F G H O M_**

**_ A B D E F G H R_**

**_DDK: A B D F G H_**

**_Password:_**

_Ah, simple enough. With how the letters are arranged, this is an easy process of elimination._

Chuckling to herself, she simply eliminated the key letters one by one until she came up with "newcomer." A confirmation beep sounded the code correct. Ready for any new threats, she entered the new area with her handgun raised, expecting another raptor to jump out at any moment. All she saw was an elevator lobby and some blood on the floor.

Tranquil for now, there was nothing really too special about this section of the first floor—in front, two elevators stood adjacent, although the one on the right appeared to be out of order; the door itself was bent and dented, probably the result of a struggle while in transit. The elevator next had a card reader, its light brightly shining. To Regina's farthest left was a single door, and just a few feet away from her was a body lying face down, eviscerated. The white lab coat was completely red from absorbing a large volume of blood, while the back of the researcher had a deep gash across the width.

_Ouch. _

Whatever had killed him had ripped his arms clean off as well. If the gash didn't kill him, then certainly the rapid loss of blood certainly did. The pool of crimson liquid had just begun to coagulate, so whatever happened here seemed very recent. Off to the right was a small enclosed security booth, probably used for just that—checking the people who used the elevators.

Her only way to go was the door to her left—the elevator looked like it needs an ID card of sorts, and she didn't want to feel around in someone's mutilated corpse to fish one out, although if she had to, she'd come back and do so. Stepping over the corpse, she made her way to the door, unlocked it, and slowly crept into the hallway. It was quite narrow, but brightly lit and not quite so industrial gray as the rest of the facility. There was only one direction she could go—further down the hall, it seemed to open up into a larger area. She could make out a couple of vending machines toward the end, some of their contents lying open and ruptured on the ground. The soldier walked down the hall, passing a door to her left as she did. Before she could reach the opening, she heard a hissing noise, and she backed against the wall immediately.

Peering around the corner, she immediately discovered that she wasn't alone—at the farthest end of the hall was another of the olive-skinned raptors, its rear facing her.

_Might as well go through the door I just passed…if I can avoid it, that'll save me some ammo. _

Moving very slowly along the wall, she was able to move her lithe, slender figure with hardly a sound. Last thing she wanted was to attract its attention. Stealthily, she holstered her handgun and steadied herself with her shotgun, in case the raptor gained ground. Quietly, she turned the knob of the door in front of her, opened it wide—

A shriek out of nowhere cut through the air, followed by the sounds of a door flying off its hinges, crashing loudly into the wall opposite. Out of sheer reflex, she turned toward the direction of this sudden disturbance, coming from the elevator lobby, fired her shotgun—and her shot hit nothing but air. From behind her, the loud burst of gunfire caught the attention of the first Velociraptor, and instantly, she could hear it charging in her direction, the footsteps coming loud and fast. No sooner did another second pass when another door quickly burst open, ripping from the wall, crashing loudly to the floor, and charging at her was another raptor, probably the same one that just caused the noise in the elevator hall. Her instinctual gunfire simply alerted the two to her presence, and she was trapped.

_Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck—_

She quickly reloaded and fired at the creature from the hall, this time the shell hitting its mark on the neck, slicing a nice gash. Unfazed, it kept charging. She wouldn't have time to fire another—it'd be on her in a second, two at the most. She dove into the doorway that she opened, and quickly slammed the door, locking it, although what good that'd do she wouldn't know. She ran to the right of this new room, and loaded her shotgun, her heart pounding, knowing that they were going to burst through any second, and she'd be outnumbered. One of them let out a shrill roar, and one slammed into the door, causing the hinges to bend slightly. Scanning the area quickly, she noticed she was in an office of some kind—it was large, probably for several of the scientists, but she scanned for another exit, and quickly found one—a set of double doors on the opposite side of the office. Another loud crash interrupted her thoughts, and the hinges bent even more. It wouldn't take another hit. Her mind set, she began to run for the doors on the opposite side, but wouldn't make it too far.

Seconds later, a new sound filled the air—the sound of automatic gunfire coming from the hall, followed by a series of piercing shrieks, then silence.

_What the--? Gail?_

Regina had a confused look on her face as she stood still for a few moments. Pure luck had saved her this time. Another few seconds passed, and after she felt reasonably sure that those creatures had indeed been dispatched, she rested the gun at her side and quickly took a passing glance around the room. After all, she was still sweeping the area for Kirk, or anything that could lead the team to him.

It was pretty barren as offices get. Along the right wall was a line of lockers, some opened, some closed, containing some belongings. As she walked around the perimeter of the room, she could see a couple of pictures taped up in one, a lab coat hanging in another, a centerfold of a nude woman in a sexy pose, to name some.

_Ah, male researchers, _she thought, a grin spreading across her face. Near the door was a computer terminal, the monitor displaying something that seemed to be of no use. Two long tables stretched across the room, one of them had a phone on the end of it. On the far wall were rows and rows of binders, books, and assorted papers scattered. In the center of this wall was a white board, scattered with Post-Its and a couple of interoffice notes of it—a personnel change, and one memo marked with high importance. Curious, she read the urgent memo:

**Subject: Tonight's Experiment**

**To: Third Energy Staff**

**Priority: High**

**Written By: Warren Clay, Colonel**

**Three years have passed since the tragic disaster. The performance of the newest Stabilizer will be tested in tonight's experiment.**

**Three years ago, the Third Energy destroyed the facility and killed as many as 150 personnel, just from a single overflowing accident. So, to prevent a similar disaster from happening, we will take every possible precaution to reinforce our security.**

**One more thing...we recently has a case in which someone used the terminal in this room and forged a fake ID to gain unauthorized access.**

**Today, we are going to have a meeting in the strategy room on how to cope with the problem. In any case, all personnel should protect the security of the terminal. Anyone leaving this room unattended should lock the door without fail.**

_I wonder if that someone was Tom…ah, well. Whatever experiment they ran, it surely seemed to fail, since now the researchers are quite dead, dinosaurs are roaming the facility, and Kirk is nowhere to be seen. Might as well press on. Rick said the lecture room was at the end of this hallway, or so he guessed. Might as well check it out. _

Surprisingly, the door she came in from still held, albeit barely. As she ventured back out into the hall, her suspicious were confirmed—someone had shot the two raptors dead, both bodies lined with bullet holes and fresh blood oozing out of them. Machine gun rounds lie empty in the surrounding area, and as she walked into the open space, she noticed a grate on the ground—above it, another ventilation opening.

_Was that grate there before? I don't remember…_

To her right, the hallway went down a ways before coming to an end at the place where she saw the first dinosaur. In the distance, all she made out was a bloody mess. Walking quicker, she also noticed a trail of smeared blood leading up to the corpse—well, the upper half of it, anyway—most likely what the raptor snacked on before meeting his end. Now at the end of the hall, a sign hung from the ceiling: "Lecture Room."

_Well, la-dee-dah._

The doorknob had some blood smears on it, leading her to the conclusion that this poor guy probably tried to duck in here for some safety but just was a bit too late. Also judging by the uniform, he seemed to be an armed guard rather than a researcher.

_I wonder…_

She squatted down by the mutilated torso and checked it for some ammo, perhaps a pocket, a side pack, something. A quick glance yielded nothing, and before she could flip the bloody corpse over, she heard another series of automatic gunfire, followed by a loud crash coming from the room ahead. Wasting no time, she grabbed her shotgun and stormed inside, ready for anything. Immediately, she saw the disturbance—another of the raptors had crashed into the room from a large vent in the ceiling in a far corner of the lecture room. Another series of machine gun fire cut through the air, their origin or direction unknown—rows of desks obstructed her view below the creature's abdomen. Nevertheless, she ran to the front of the room and fired her weapon in motion, diving to the floor in the process. The shell ripped through the creature's bottom jaw, and another short burst of gunfire finally knocked the creature to its side, its motion stopped. After a few tense moments of awkward silence and smoke, a brusque voice broke the restored tranquility.

"So we're even, Regina. Thanks for the backup."

"Gail?" she said, a bit surprised. She rose quickly and ran toward the corner where the creature was, in time to see a sprawled Gail lying on the carpeted floor, his face and uniform speckled with dino blood.

He wiped the blood off his face and rose to his feet. "That lizard came out of nowhere—I was examining this board over here—" He pointed to a now broken white dry-erase board, then continued, "when this thing fell on me. Caught me off guard."

She breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, good to know you're ok. What happened outside?"

"The hall? I was on my way to another part of the first floor via the vent shaft you passed to get here—heard some gunfire, turned around, saw you duck inside a room, I took care of the lizards, here I am."

"Thought it was you," she added. She took one more glance on the dead reptile beside them, then continued. "Something is really wrong with this place—this whole mission's gone sour."

"Hey, it's always eat or be eaten out on the battlefield—no matter who or what you're up against," he said firmly. "Any word on the Doc?"

She looked at him again and just simply nodded her head.

"Hmm. I see. Well, there's nothing left to do here. My radio took a hit when that lizard fell on me. Rick's the only one that can fix it, so we might as well head back to the Control Room—we'll plan out some more strategy there."

She nodded in agreement, and followed him out.

**Location: Control Room, 1F**

Rick looked up from one of the monitors as the other two members of the team walked into the room, Regina following behind Gail.

"Good to see you two still alive," he said, sounding relieved.

"You as well," Regina replied. Gail just gave a brief nod in agreement. "Anything on the Doc?"

"Nope. Guy's like a shadow," he answered. "Then again, not all the power to the facility has been restored. Just a few minutes ago, a few new monitors came on—one of the backup generators probably kicked on—a little late, and we don't know how long it'll provide power for."

"Rick, I need you to check out my radio—one of those lizards fell on me, and it took a hit. Check it out."

She walked over towards Rick, glancing at the wall of monitors in front of her. Each one changed picture every few seconds, syncing them up with a different camera each time. So far, all seemed quiet. On occasion a monitor would pick up a dinosaur or corpse lying in some hall or room, but nothing out of the ordinary. Behind her, Gail was scoping out the other wall of monitors, some of them still not in use, pacing back and forth as he did so, in true military style.

"What we do know," Rick continued, going back to the radio "is that all the power on the first floor has been restored. So far, we haven't seen hide nor hair of Kirk. You've explored what you could of the second floor, and all you found was a T-Rex. This means--"

"That leaves the underground area, then," Gail cut in, his gaze glued to the monitors. "It's the only area left."

"Thanks," Rick said flatly, then looked at Regina. "What he said."

"Has power been restored to the underground?" she asked.

"Mostly. The backup generator that kicked on is working on it. I'm was working on getting the final touches, disabling the laser shutters and—"

"Hold it!" Gail interrupted again, his voice entering commander mode. "I just saw something streak by on one of the monitors—whatever it was, it was moving pretty quick. Looked human. Rick, open the shutters to the underground area." As he turned to carry out his orders, a beeping sound followed by a blue light flashed on all three wristcoms.

"Radio's fixed," Rick cut in, pleased with himself.

"What is it?" Gail asked, only noticing the emitted beep, still scanning the monitors.

"It's a distress signal from one of our teammates," she replied, concern in her voice. "It might be Cooper."

Rick turned to face Regina. "Or it might be Tom. Can you pinpoint the signal?  
She glanced at her wristcom and saw the position on the small LED screen next to the speaker. "It's coming from outside the facility—to the east of the rear entrance that we came in from."

The leader turned to face the both of them, his expression rigid and authoritative. "Look, we'll deal with that later. Our first and overriding priority is the survivor in the underground. It could be the Doc."

END chapter. As always, reviews and constructive feedback always welcome. I don't anticipate the next chapter to take so long. Sorry, my readers! Forgive me!


	4. A Shift in Priority

**Chapter Three: A Shift in Priority**

Right after the dinosaurs appeared in the facility, all hell broke loose. Those who didn't die in the overflow of the experiment were certainly no match for the creatures. Power to the facility had been cut due to the experiment, and so he tried to get as much of the power back on as he could, including the large size cargo elevator that could take anyone to the B-levels. He succeeded—barely. On his way back from the elevator power room, he was caught by surprise by a new menace—Pteranodon, two of them on the passageway between the power room and control room. One of them had knocked him down, and the other flew in and plunged its talons into his shoulders, causing him to scream in tremendous pain as he felt his skin and muscles being pierced. It lifted him high into the air, and then dropped him to the ground in an attempt to break his bones. His body hit the tarmac with a sickening _thud_, followed by the dull crack of a bone, one of his ribs breaking. The force of impact rendered him immobile, the wind knocked out of him completely reducing him to nothing. Only a couple seconds later, another, maybe the same one, clamped down on him again, the brief impact pressing him into the ground. This time, it didn't get a good enough grip, grabbing his left arm instead of his shoulder blade. Regardless, as he began to regain awareness despite the tearing pain ripping his body, he felt himself being hoisted into the air once again. This time, it was on the move, flying over the passageway. Dangling by one arm, he looked down, still a little groggy; he noticed that it was flying toward a huge exhaust fan, its massive blades spinning rapidly. Was it going to drop him in there?

_Oh, fuck…_

Instinct starting to take over, combined with the knowledge that he could be bird feed in about five seconds, he managed to reach down with his free arm and grab his handgun. As he raised his arm to fire, he could feel the muscle ripping, but it was better than being chum. Just as it was about to fly over the fan, he fired two shots into the creature's abdomen. The winged beast let out a piercing shriek, letting go of its prey instantly. Surprisingly, he landed on his feet, but collapsed to the ground, the impact too great. Another wave of excruciating pain shot through his torn body, causing him to scream in agony. He didn't see the flying creature plunge into the fan, decapitating it into a thousand tiny pieces, sending blood splattering all around the surrounding area.

With his strength rapidly failing, he somehow managed to get inside the elevator's control room. He didn't care about the trail of blood he was leaving on the tiled floor, just knew that he needed to hold out just a little longer, and pray that someone caught his signal for help.

_Damn…fucking…flying monsters!_

The ailing agent fell to his knees as he turned the corner, searing, unbearable pain shooting up his back. Blood was coming out of his shoulders in torrents, and he was starting to feel very dizzy.

_At least…I got…the elevator working…Rick…Regina…Gail…Cooper…_

Knowing that tonight would be the night of the experiment, which meant the S.O.R.T. team's reconnaissance as well, he had tried to get everything prepared for the Doctor's capture without blowing his cover—collecting all the information on the Third Energy as he possibly could, in the event that something did happen to him, or he found the S.O.R.T group, he could give them all the research and experiment data. Also, he had figured out a method to rewrite ID cards, giving him access to unauthorized places. Using his own, he did just that. Alas, things had become horribly wrong—the experiment went out of control…or did it?

He had crawled towards a corner of a set of controls, feeling the urge to pass out coming on stronger.

_God damn you, Kirk…you fooled everyone. These secret experiments, this facility…all a front!_

He couldn't take the pain anymore. His knees gave out, and he slumped to the floor, barely conscious. With some of his remaining energy, he managed to hit a button on his communication device, signaling a distress call. Now, all he could do was pray.

"What are you _talking about?_" Rick said incredulously, rising from his chair. "He's asking for _our_ _help_! We don't leave one of our own behind!"

"And what if it's a trap?" Gail shot back, his expression becoming one of annoyance. "Would you want us to come and rescue you?"

Rick turned around coldly and sat back down in his chair. "Don't bother. I'm willing to take that risk."

Gail took a step toward Rick. "Remember our mission. We're _not _here to baby-sit."

Rick turned around and glared at Gail, not caring that he was the commander. "That's _your _way of operating. _Not mine._"

Regina took a step back to watch the proceedings, watching how this battle of testosterone would turn out.

After a few seconds of Rick typing away, he slammed his fist next to the panel, then rose to his feet, grabbing his machine gun from the chair next to him. "There. You have your precious access to the underground, Gail, so _get moving._" Turning his back to the leader, he began to head for the exit. "You handle your things your way; I'll handle my things my way." With that, he was out of the room.

Gail walked over to Regina, a scowl on his face. "That punk _is really _starting to get on my nerves. Regina, I'm heading out to investigate the underground. Do what you like." Just like that, he too, was gone, leaving her by herself.

She let out a sigh of relief, the tense moment passed.

_Ah, men. What do I do now? Gail gave me the green light to do whatever, so I think I'll back Rick up. Gail did bring up a valid point—it could be a trap, but on the flip side, it might not, and it could be a valid distress signal from Tom, Cooper, or any one else who got a hold of a communications device…could even be the Doc, although I'd like to shoot him. Gail can handle his sweep by himself—he's a big boy. _

Before leaving, she checked her shotgun to make sure it was fully loaded. After, she checked to see how much total ammo she had left; two clips of handgun bullets and about eight or so shells left, so she'd need to find more or conserve whenever necessary. Ready, she radioed Rick.

"Rick, I'm tagging along. What's your position?"

"I'm outside the facility, right at the spot we came in from. I'll wait for you there. Oh, an FYI: take the vent shaft from the hall—the one we first used getting to the Control Room. I didn't, met up with some more of these dinosaurs. I shot them down, but they may just be recovering. One burst through one of the big glass windows in the entrance hallway, I gunned it down. You should be fine if you go through the shaft—I'll wait here. Hurry, though."

"On my way," she replied.

She definitely noticed a drop in the nighttime temperature, definitely cooler than it was when she started. As it stood, the night sky was more or less the same—mostly cloudy, moonlight peeking in here and there.

_Man, this mission should be over by now…we would've gotten the Doc and be on our way home…_

She could see Rick standing beyond the gated entry, waiting for her. "I'm here, I'm here."

"Good," he replied. "Let's go."

After walking through a passageway, the two of them came to a clearing—a rather large clearing. Regina looked at her wristcom again to check where the distress signal came from and noticed that they were close, perhaps only a couple hundred yards away. The two walked quickly across the area, noticing a large platform in the dead center of the open area. On a corner of this platform was a control panel—lit up was a flashing green button next to a monitor. This was probably a cargo elevator to the underground levels, supplying the facility with whatever materials were flown in or what have you. To their left was another elevator—a regular elevator for personnel—and to their right, a door.

"Regina, where's that signal?" Rick asked.

"It's coming to the right of where we're standing—through that door on your right. We're almost there—I'm sure whoever it is, it's in that room."

Rick went ahead, machine gun ready. She stood right behind him, her handgun also loaded and ready.

"Go!" he yelled, and burst into the empty room.

Nothing. Silence. It was a control room, probably for the large cargo elevator. Next to them was a long row of control panels that formed a 90-degree angle with the room. At the other end was another door. No indication of anyone in distress.

Then a moan of pain broke the silence.

Rick ran toward the sound, Regina following right behind, turning the corner--

--until they saw a researcher, sitting upright on the ground, his head bowed. A deep gash ran down the length of his left side, starting from the shoulder to his chest, the once-white lab coat now nearly crimson colored. His face was ashen, sweaty, scratched, his hair tussled and in disarray. His other shoulder also looked wounded, but nowhere near as bad as the other. Whatever did this, he was mortally wounded, and staying here only would diminish any possible chance of survival.

"Tom!" Regina called out, rushing over and kneeling down by his side, Rick following suit.

The fallen agent lifted his head, tried to force an acknowledgement, a grin, something.

"You came," he said, his voice hoarse.

"As soon as we got the signal," Rick said, searching for any meds on him.

"They came out of nowhere…" Tom began, trying to give them as much info as he could before he couldn't do anything else. He tried to shift his position, but the pain prevented him from doing so. "…didn't have a chance."

"Save your strength, Tom, we've got you. Damn, Regina, this looks pretty bad. We need to get him to safety quickly," Rick instructed, taking out a bandage.

"Tom, can you tell us what's going on here?" Regina asked, taking the bandage from Rick and applying it to the more-wounded shoulder.

"Kirk's insane…!" Tom shot out, angrily. "His experiments…have _nothing _to do with energy development. Here—before we go anywhere, there's a few things in my lab coat pockets that I managed to get for you."

While Regina continued to apply the first aid, Rick searched the pockets thoroughly and fished out a few objects: an ID card with Tom's mug shot on it, and a couple of disks.

"The ID card will be useful in getting to the underground floors using the regular personnel elevators," Tom said, followed by a cough. "The two disks you hold in your hand—one of them contains all of the free info I gathered on the Third Energy before all this mess happened. It's not complete, though." After a few seconds to pause and catch his breath, he continued. "Much of it is still encrypted and classified—and only Kirk has all of the data. Find him. The second disk contains all of the keys and codes to get through the system of Digital Disk Key-locked doors that you may or may not come across. While I couldn't find the actual answers themselves, I did download what the 'puzzles' are—you'll still have to play Jumble to figure them out."

"Here, Regina, take these," Rick said, passing them on. "Where's the closest first aid station or medical room from here, Tom?"

Tom began to slump, his eyes starting to glaze over as if he was going to pass into unconsciousness. "Down on the B1 floor," he began, his voice reducing to a whisper. "Take the cargo elevator down…I'll guide you…just get me there."

"You got it," he replied. "Help me lift him."

Carefully, the two of them slowly lifted the wounded agent, propping his arms around each of them for support. He could feel himself drifting in and out of consciousness. However, if they could get him to the medical room, he might stand a better chance of survival.

Slowly, they walked out of the elevator control room, back out into the cool night. They walked onto the elevator, where Regina hit the green power button. The grinding of gears and the sounds of machinery kicking on was music to her ears—something was on and running, for once. In seconds, the elevator hummed to life and began making its descent into the underground, and for a few tense moments, all was silent, save for the elevator.

"So, you saw it, then?" Rick asked, attempting conversation.

She turned to him, looked at him quizzically. "Saw what?"  
"That huge T-Rex."

"Yeah. Didn't I tell you? It's real. Or, real in the sense that it was trying to kill me, anyway."

He shook his head. "This is just like that movie," he said softly, referring to _Jurassic Park._

Before he could continue with that line of thought, the lift jerked suddenly and began to slow down, its journey completed. Rising from the floor ahead of them was a huge metal door, the size of a movie theater screen. In big white letters, B-1 was marked. As soon as the lift stopped, the door began to open slowly, giving way to a massive receiving warehouse. Huge crates of freight were arranged neatly along the walls, double stacked throughout this huge enclosure, leaving a narrow walkway to the other side. To their immediate left, a ladder ran up the wall, leading up to a platform with a booth—inside, a control panel. The ceiling was very high, and attached to a pulley system was a crane hook, most likely used for lifting the freight from one place to another.

"Quickly, Regina. I need your help again. Hold Tom while I go to the other side, make sure it's safe. I'll call for you when we're clear." Tom let out another moan, and Regina propped him up while Rick went ahead.

"Take it easy. Are we close?" she asked softly. He nodded, trying to save his remaining energy. While she waited for the all clear, she reached into a pocket for Tom's ID card—and felt nothing. Not even the discs.

_Shit!_

"Damn it!" she swore at herself. She'd have to go back up to the elevator control room to nab the items lying on one of the panels.

_Stupid, stupid idiot…I'll have to go back up, leave Tom with Rick._

A green light flashed on her wristcom some seconds later, signifying that everything was OK. Taking one of Tom's arms around her shoulder, she gently, slowly walked with him along the passageway, being careful not to further injure the ailing soldier. On the other side of the warehouse, she saw Rick kneeling down next to a bloodied corpse lying against the wall, a chunk of its right side chewed off. A puddle of blood pooled all around him, coagulating around the spilled internal organs, glistening in the florescent light. A trail of smeared blood lined the wall, beginning from a single door on the left, to where the body laid to die. Further down stood a set of double doors. Whoever he was, he was certainly beyond any help.

"There you are," Rick said, finally noticing the two. "Which door, Tom?"

"To the right…" he said weakly. "Go through the…double doors…and go to the end of the hall…nearly…there."

Rick nodded.

"Rick," Regina cut in. "I need to back up to where we found Tom—I left the ID card and the discs he gave us up there. Will you be ok with Tom, or do you need me to stay with you?"

"No, I'll take care of Tom. We're close, so I shouldn't have a problem. Go get those things—they're important. Then meet me in the medical room."

"Got it. Take care of him—he's not gonna last much longer if we don't."

Rick nodded. "Will do. Oh, and by the way—if you happen to see Gail up there and he gives you any more of his bull, be sure to beat him down for me, ok?

She chuckled. "Sure. Just for you. Meet you soon." With that, she turned around and was gone.

He ran a hand through his white hair and let out an obvious moan of frustration.

_You're running out of places to hide, Doc…_

His search for the Doc was coming up empty—he scanned the medical room hall, and all he found was a dead dinosaur lying in a corner, gutted. Dark blood was pooled around it, but there was a flurry of activity surrounding the carcass—a gathering of Compsognathus, or Compy for short, were busy scavenging and eating the dead dino. Compys were tiny things, a couple of feet tall at the most, with as much energy as a puppy—very easily excited. Compys tended to be scavengers, and right now all their attention was focused on this creature before them, so much so that they didn't even notice Gail as he ran right past them toward the door at the end.

His semi-auto ready, he went through the door, leading him into another hallway. Stopping for just a sec, he heard footsteps moving away from his position—his ears never failed him.

_Looks like I'm not alone…_

Stealthily, he pressed his body against the hall and took silent, slow movements toward the sound. Up ahead, he could make out a metal gate, and he could make out the shape of a silhouette at the gate, male, his back to Gail, pressing buttons on a control panel. The soldier inched closer for a better look. Whoever he was, he was alive. And possibly something better—Kirk himself. A few seconds later, the sounds of gears began to grind as the gate lifted into the ceiling. The researcher turned, allowing Gail a better look.

The men had long, straight blond hair, covering his neck, but not quite shoulder length. He wore a long, white lab coat, with some blood speckled along one side. Dangling from one pocket was a badge. His face was round, had no facial hair. The front of his hair was in disarray, and sweat ran down the young scientist's face. Gail was positive that he had his man. The scientist looked in Gail's direction, saw him immediately, and his face lit up in surprise.

"Doctor Kirk?" Gail called out to the surprised researcher. Useless. Kirk ran through the passageway, and Gail immediately broke into a run, trying not to lose the Doctor.

"Hey, wait!"

Gears and machinery hummed on again, and Gail realized that the gate was closing fast—and he heard an door opening.

_Damn, he's getting away!_

The gate would close in a couple of seconds, Kirk gone, leaving Gail stranded, his objective incomplete.

_Not gonna make it!_

He'd have to go for broke. With a burst of speed, he dove and rolled under the gate, clearing the threshold barely as the gate slammed close, nearly catching the soldier's foot. Wasting no time, he got up just in time to see a set of double doors wide open, and with it, Kirk escaping. Again.

"Doctor, hold it!" Gail commanded, but to no avail. Getting up as fast as he could, he broke into a run again. By the time he cleared the double doors, he found himself in a long hallway—alone. Kirk had slipped away, but Gail now had confirmed one thing—the Doctor was alive, and very nearby. With no time to lose, he tore down the hallway.

_I'm gonna get you, you son of a bitch._

A foul, rife odor invaded their senses as they turned a corner of the hall, a pungent smell of burned rubber and singed flesh.

"Goddamn," Rick cried out, waving a hand in front of his face. "What died in here?"

Tom coughed weakly, his body too damaged to even care.

_Hang in there, Tom…we're almost there._

As they proceeded further down the wide hall, Rick could hear the sounds of popping and crackling electricity some distance away, but fairly close. Taking his time with the wounded soldier, the sounds got louder as they got closer to the source. Looking ahead, Rick made out a piece of broken fencing on the ground, accompanied by sparks jumping out from the wall with some light smoke filtering upwards. A few feet ahead of that was the door leading into further unknown territory, but closer to their immediate destination.

_Hmm?_

As they got closer, Rick noticed that there was a hole in the wall where the fencing used to be, the remaining fencing gnarled and twisted. Looking inside the opening gave Rick the answer he was looking for—it was not pleasant, by any stretch of the imagination. Lying on its side was a blackened dinosaur, another of the raptors, its mouth wide open, agape, drool leaking out its massive mouth. Its eyes were wide open, frozen in time, frozen in the moment that ended its life. Some blood was leaking out of the creature's orifices, a dark, slick fluid.

_Curiosity killed the lizard, it would seem…it didn't read the High Voltage sign, I'd imagine._

Before Rick could study the creature anymore, Tom gagged, his body finally realizing that yes, there was a nasty smell in the air.

"All right, Tom, take it easy, we're going," Rick said, patting Tom on the back.

Once into the next hall, he and Tom paused for a few seconds to breathe in some cleaner air. He took a quick look at the tired agent, and was looking worse and worse with each minute. His face was devoid of any color, and was covered in sweat. He could noticeably see Tom struggling to keep his eyes open, to keep conscious, fighting as long as he could.

"Where to, pal?"

Tom coughed again, then turned to Rick, speaking slowly: "Keep going to the end of the hall...next hall has the medical room." His head slumped forward again, but he remained conscious. He was still walking under his own power, but how long that would last; Rick didn't want to find out.

_Ah, there you are. Just where I left you._

Breathing a sigh of relief, she took the discs and pocketed them. As she turned to leave the control room, her wristcom beeped twice, a green light flashing indicating an incoming call.

"Regina, you there?" came the voice of Gail.

"Yeah, I'm here," she replied. "What's up?"

"I just got a positive ID on the Doctor," he answered. "I lost him, but he's definitely on the B1 floor. Drop whatever you're doing and get to the B1 floor now. Rick can do whatever he's doing—I need you on the B1 floor now. _That's an order. _Gail out."

"Yes, sir," she acquiesced. The room was silent once again.

_Well, I was going back down to the B1 level anyway…_

The Compys were too engrossed in their meal to notice the two soldiers walking slowly past. Finally, they reached their destination, a sign next to a door to their left confirming so. Rick let out a sigh of relief, the journey seeming to take longer than it should've.

The door automatically opened, and the two of them walked slowly into the silent room. It was brightly lit and white, as a medical room normally would be. On the right was a long series of cabinets with files and books on top. A glass window divided the room into two. Looking in, Rick could see a tall cabinet and part of a bed, the view obstructed by other storage c On the wall ahead was a desk with a computer terminal it—next to that was a tall cabinet containing various medicines. In the rear was another entryway to the side of the medical room, where Rick was going to take Tom. As they turned the corner, they heard the sound of an animal hiss.

_Fuck, no—_

Before Rick could fully assess the situation, they suddenly found themselves face to face with a sleeping raptor—which was now awake and on its feet. As Rick was drawing his semi-automatic, he unexpectedly felt a hard shove from his partner, catching him off guard and sending him into the wall. The raptor crouched back, letting out a shriek. With a surge of adrenaline, Tom reached for his modified, more powerful handgun.

"Chew on this!" he yelled, firing at point-blank range.

Time seemed to pass in stop motion. Each shot hit its mark, but that seemed to do little. The raptor made a lunge toward the wounded agent, its jaws wide open. Tom had nowhere he could run, his back to the wall. He fired again as the jaws clamped around his torso, the lunge slamming Tom into the wall. Tom screamed in horrible agony as the teeth pierced his body with ease, blood squirting out of his already open wounds.

"_Toooooooooooooooooooom!_"

On the ground, Rick yelled in anger and opened a wave of gunfire, unleashing rapid-fire bullets into the raptor's side. The creature loosened its hold on the mortally wounded agent as the hot bullets ripped into its thick skin, sending pieces flying. Tom fell to the floor like a rag doll, the gun falling out of his hand.

Rick never let go of the trigger, just kept firing until the magazine emptied, yelling. Loaded with ammo, the raptor finally fell, its body thoroughly pocked with holes from the gunfire. Wasting no time, he rushed over to Tom's body, but there was nothing more he could do—the creature had punctured clean through his lungs, his heart. His eyes were wide open, his face forever fixed in a twisted expression of final pain. Tom had committed the ultimate sacrifice so that Rick could go on, finish what was started.

A tear ran down the side of Rick's face.

END chapter. As always, reviews welcome!


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